Blu-ray or HD-DVD? None for now, thank you.
Blu-ray and High Definition DVD technologies were to have been launched in the second half of last year, but adoption uncertainties have kept disc manufacturers at bay.
People are just not willing to pay for something that is not a sure thing.
And that is what's causing companies like Anwell Technologies to re-think their projections.
It was already developing machines that make both Blu-ray discs and HD-DVDs a year ago.
(Anwell issued a profit warning yesterday, citing “uncertainties of the third generation optical disc format” for causing the delay in disc manufacturers' capex plans.)
The dilemma is understandable.
The war between the two camps of backers is reminiscent of the VHS-Betamax video battle (which VHS won).
The Blu-ray Disc Association includes Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Walt Disney Pictures and Television and Apple.
HD DVD has fewer backers but of similar repute: Microsoft, Toshiba, NEC, Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers.
There aren't any signs of either supporters letting up:
Sony is launching its Blu-ray recorder in December this year and its much-anticipated PlayStation 3 (equipped with a Blu-ray player) in November.
Meanwhile, Microsoft's Xbox 360 HD-DVD player will be available in mid-November.
Datapulse Technology and Anwell both think it is cheaper to make HD-DVDs than Blu-ray discs.
This is because existing DVD-making equipment can be upgraded easily to manufacture HD-DVDs.
But I digress.
The safest locally-listed player in all of this is must be Swing Media Technology.
CEO Matthew Hui once told me it will take about 5 years for consumers to switch to the two new formats.
In other words, he's not thinking of hitching onto either technology just yet.
Well, looking at Anwell's profit warning, Swing Media seems to be doing right, standing at the sidelines.
Risk-adverse as he may seem, Hui may be the only one in this war that'll come out relatively unscathed.
For now.
I just wish my brother could take a leaf out of Hui's book and stall his decision on getting that new Playstation 3.
Serene Lim
People are just not willing to pay for something that is not a sure thing.
And that is what's causing companies like Anwell Technologies to re-think their projections.
It was already developing machines that make both Blu-ray discs and HD-DVDs a year ago.
(Anwell issued a profit warning yesterday, citing “uncertainties of the third generation optical disc format” for causing the delay in disc manufacturers' capex plans.)
The dilemma is understandable.
The war between the two camps of backers is reminiscent of the VHS-Betamax video battle (which VHS won).
The Blu-ray Disc Association includes Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Walt Disney Pictures and Television and Apple.
HD DVD has fewer backers but of similar repute: Microsoft, Toshiba, NEC, Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers.
There aren't any signs of either supporters letting up:
Sony is launching its Blu-ray recorder in December this year and its much-anticipated PlayStation 3 (equipped with a Blu-ray player) in November.
Meanwhile, Microsoft's Xbox 360 HD-DVD player will be available in mid-November.
Datapulse Technology and Anwell both think it is cheaper to make HD-DVDs than Blu-ray discs.
This is because existing DVD-making equipment can be upgraded easily to manufacture HD-DVDs.
But I digress.
The safest locally-listed player in all of this is must be Swing Media Technology.
CEO Matthew Hui once told me it will take about 5 years for consumers to switch to the two new formats.
In other words, he's not thinking of hitching onto either technology just yet.
Well, looking at Anwell's profit warning, Swing Media seems to be doing right, standing at the sidelines.
Risk-adverse as he may seem, Hui may be the only one in this war that'll come out relatively unscathed.
For now.
I just wish my brother could take a leaf out of Hui's book and stall his decision on getting that new Playstation 3.
Serene Lim
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I feel one should relook at the business model for DVDs & the entire line of such technology. They served a purpose when alternative mass storage costs were relatively high and the means of distributing content was still relatively undeveloped.
Storage costs are dropping and capacity is increasing at an exponential rate for mass-storage hard disk drives. We are also seeing alternative storage mediums gaining traction, such as flash and thumb drives, which is even now, fast closing the gap with the next generation of disc technology. They are superior in terms of price, size and most importantly, reliability.
The disc serve to preserve the old means of content distribution. The companies would store their content on the discs, move it through the traditional sales & retail channels. But the model has changed.
Content is being increasingly delivered via the net, direct to the consumer. wired and wireless broadband speeds are increasing, prices are coming down, adoption & penetration rates are going up.
This means the traditional distribution middle-man and the medium will be removed, and renders the entire generation of disc technology irrelevant.
Add on to the fact that HD-DVD and Bluray are *still* engaged in a protracted, expensive, standards fight, coupled with technological, price and reliability problems, one cannot hope for the eventual winner to be able to match the progress that is being made by other alternative storage mediums right now on a daily basis.
Personally, I feel that the humble disc, whatever it maybe, HD-DVD or Bluray, will go the way of cassette tapes.
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Storage costs are dropping and capacity is increasing at an exponential rate for mass-storage hard disk drives. We are also seeing alternative storage mediums gaining traction, such as flash and thumb drives, which is even now, fast closing the gap with the next generation of disc technology. They are superior in terms of price, size and most importantly, reliability.
The disc serve to preserve the old means of content distribution. The companies would store their content on the discs, move it through the traditional sales & retail channels. But the model has changed.
Content is being increasingly delivered via the net, direct to the consumer. wired and wireless broadband speeds are increasing, prices are coming down, adoption & penetration rates are going up.
This means the traditional distribution middle-man and the medium will be removed, and renders the entire generation of disc technology irrelevant.
Add on to the fact that HD-DVD and Bluray are *still* engaged in a protracted, expensive, standards fight, coupled with technological, price and reliability problems, one cannot hope for the eventual winner to be able to match the progress that is being made by other alternative storage mediums right now on a daily basis.
Personally, I feel that the humble disc, whatever it maybe, HD-DVD or Bluray, will go the way of cassette tapes.
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